The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Makes Shooting Aliens Fun Again

By

Yannick LeJacq

Aug 30, 2013 2:00 pm ET

TKBy all accounts, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified never should have seen the light of day. Designed as a shooter spin-off from the core line of classic X-COM strategy games, the game formerly known as XCOM (like Jay-Z, the hyphen here marks a stylistic, if not artistic shift in direction) has been in development in one form or another since 2006, according to a thorough history of the troubled property recently published by Polygon. But for all its time spent wallowing in production hell, the game that finally hit the shelves with little fanfare this month has the bumps and scratches of something delivered under an ominous now or never deadline.

Like the creepy G-Men and blacked-out statements that adorn The Bureau’s promotional art, 2K Games, XCOM’s publisher, seemed to be negotiating with the last impatient XCOM fans when it suddenly re-revealed the game earlier this summer. Trust us, 2K seemed to say. This will be better than you think.

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